A new A&E for Croydon University Hospital

We have just had a great piece of news for the Borough that I thought you’d want to know about: the NHS Trust Development Authority has approved plans for a new £21.25 million state-of-the-art Emergency (A&E) Department at Croydon University Hospital, formerly known as Mayday.

I am very pasionante about our NHS. Two years ago, the NHS saved my twin children’s lives when they were born incredibly prematurely at 25 weeks. They spent 3 months in an NHS neonatal intensive care unit at a London NHS hospital specialising in neonatal care. The care they received was amazing and it is thanks to the NHS that they survived.

In 2013, the Care Quality Commission found our existing Emergency Department at CUH to be badly designed, in a poor state of repair and too small to treat the current number of patients it regularly sees. The new Department is designed to address these issues. It will:

be a third bigger than the current facility;

be bright, modern and purpose-built, offering a better environment for patients and staff;

give clinicians clear sight of their patients through an open-plan design to improve safety and care;

have ‘sub-waiting’ areas so that patients will move through the department during treatment rather than having to return to the main communal waiting area; and

have doors rather than curtains on all ‘majors’ cubicles (the beds where people are treated) to improve patient privacy and dignity.

It will consist of:

28 adult ‘majors’ emergency bays;

a dedicated 8-bay children’s emergency department with its own reception and waiting area;

a larger resuscitation unit; and

an urgent care centre for more minor ailments and illnesses.

Work is scheduled to begin in autumn of 2015 and will last for approximately 18 months. A full Emergency Department will continue to operate during the works.

This is another piece of great news for our Borough, following on the news in the Budget that Croydon is to receive an extra £7 million to help regenerate it.

I am also continuing to campaign for the opening hours at Purley Hospital’s minor injuries unit to once again include the morning. In the meantime, for minor injuries the Purley Hospital unit is open from 2pm to 8pm 365 days a year. The more people who use it, the more chance we have of getting the morning hours restored.

The NHS isn’t perfect, but its fundamental principle – that if you get sick or hurt you don’t have to worry whether you can afford treatment – is one of the best things about this country and I will do everything I can to defend and improve it.